Far from space, this is what the plaque at the foot of this marble sculpture reads:

From the 1920s to the 1940s Brancusi was preoccupied by the theme of a bird in flight. He concentrated not on the physical attributes of the bird but on its movement, intending to capture “the essence of flight.” This particular conception of a bird in space is the first in a series of seven sculptures carved from marble and nine cast in bronze.